Oh.My.Varnish! Orly – Cashmere Cardigan with Essie – Shine of the Times flakie top coat!!

I spent all summer longing for Revlon – Modern Grace, and while searching for it, I learned that Orly – Cashmere Cardigan was a very close dupe. Or rather, MG is a dupe of CC since CC came out first, but that’s minor detail my friends, minor details. The point is, both colors were Limited Edition and when I saw that Ricky’s still had Cashmere Cardigan for sale on their website, I was ecstatic! It was discontinued before I even found out about it, so it was a pretty exciting score for me.  When it finally got here, I was thrilled, and then amazed… I think I actually love Cashmere Cardigan more than Modern Grace! Mel had found me Modern Grace months ago, and I had even found a back up when I got to NYC last month, but I still had to have Cashmere Cardigan. Both colors are ones I’ll get plenty of use out of, but will be super sad when they are gone, so I try to use them for really great manis.

The formula is fantastic, one to two coater depending on patience. The color is just slightly more purple/greyed than Modern Grace, boardasnails does a great comparison here! It’s magic on it’s own, and a top 5 in my collection (massive honor haha), but it’s straight up OH MY VARNISH with Essie – Shine of the Times on it. I started with an accent nail, but I had to do a full mani of it. I took the picture above so you could see CC on it’s own, but right after the pic, SotT was all over all 10 digits. Topped it all off with Essie – Good to Go (yes, look at me trying out a non-Seche Vite top coat!) and let the awesomeness sink in. Pretty sure I my productivity at work that day took a dive because all I remember is staring at my nails all day haha.

L’Oreal – Because You’re Worth It

Basic rundown of why I had to have this color: 1) the name; I’m a hair dye junkie as well as a nail polish addict, so I’ve been using L’Oreal products forever, and having the name in my collection made me ridiculously happy. 2) We’re big fans of L’Oreal polishes here at the Clique, and have been super excited about seeing all the new colors they have been releasing. 3) It was a metallic that I could.not.put.down. Massive rarity for me; Mel’s the metallic girl in this group, I tend to just assume it’s going to be streaky and make me sad, but something about this color made me not even consider that fear. And that was all before I even put the color on my nails!

When I put this polish on this past Monday I had no real intention of giving it a longevity test, but work was crazy exhausting this week, and it was still on by the time Friday night rolled around. I think wearing it for so long is what really sold me on this polish. Yes, it wore amazingly, the claim on the display that it’s a long wear polish (actually claims 10 day, I only rocked it for 5) is no lie. Little tip wear, but not a single chip.  But it was how much the color still caught my eye after that many days that really impressed me. Golds are notoriously hard to match to skin colors; some are too flashy, some too yellow, the list goes on. The muted, almost creamy finish to this gold and the fact that it’s a little more browned made it really flattering. It’s also a really nice work appropriate shade that didn’t make me feel like I had to give up fun in the office. Even at the end of the week I was looking at my nails with a quiet “oh my varnish” in the back of my mind. Only downside, which is a manageable one, is that being a metallic shade, it will show imperfections in your nails. It didn’t streak on me though, so having to buff a few nails didn’t bother me! I used two coats over Orly – Nail Armor and sealed it all with Seche Vite. Over all opinion: I think it’s a quality addition to any polish stash.  Totally lived up to all my reasons for buying it!!

Mel had sent me a nail care package and I had been dying to try out Wet N Wild – 24 Carat, so I did one coat of that on my ring finger as an accent nail. It really matched the color of BYWI well, adding a subtle glitter fix to it. I will admit though, this was one case where I wasn’t always drawn to my accent nail first. It was the whole mani that would catch my attention, speaking volumes to the wonders of BYWI!!

There are a couple more colors in the display that I found this in that were pretty too. The Color Riche line is $2 with Flex card at Duane Reade this week, an even better excuse to grab them! These are all colors from the core collection too, so be on the lookout for the full display!

L’Oreal – Lady Luck

Blog, it’s been a trying two weeks for me. No, not because I moved to NYC and started a new job, that part is pretty fan-freaking-tastic. It’s because, well, I quite literally moved up here in 2 suitcases. On Megabus. Which means… I only brought about 10 polishes with me. I’ll let that sink in for a minute. A girl who owns over 300 polishes and loves it enough to write on a blog about it brought TEN polishes with her to start her new life.

Needless to say, I lasted all of 3 days here before I went into Duane Reade and picked up a rather large handful of polishes, haha. This was one of them. And the one I put immediately on 🙂 It’s my “I just landed in the big apple!!” polish, and it’s perrrrffffeeeccctttt for that occasion!

taken with flash

L’Oreal – Lady Luck is a classic red with an amazing formula. The pic was taken after wearing it two days, so I did a quick “freshen up coat” and you can see it’s nice and glossy all on it’s own. Granted, I’m too impatient to ever wear nail polish without the magic drying powers of Seche Vite, but if it’s your virtue, this polish is completely rockable on it’s own. I sort of feel about Lady Luck how I think Mel feels about Butter London – Saucy Jack. It’s a classic, always looks awesome, go-to red. And I feel like it’s the perfect color for me to explore New York in; it’s sultry, fun, adventurous, classic, and powerful. All traits a good red should have.

(sorry for the blur, but it showed the color most accurately)

If I have to live with a limited supply of nail polish until I can move all my stuff up from Maryland (and Michigan…), I’m very glad to have this baby in my stash. I foresee it getting TONS of use!

Revlon – Whimsical !!! (over OPI – Planks A Lot)

1 coat Seche Rebuild (base)
2 coats OPI – Planks A Lot
2 coats Revlon – Whimsical
1 coat Essie – Good to Go! (top)

Revlon definitely wins brand of the year for this one.   Those of you that know me know that my biggest lemming of all time is Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter in the Air.  There’s something about that cotton candy-like light blue and pink hex glitter (with blue and silver micro glitter) floating in milky blue base that makes me drool.  I could look at swatches of it alllll day.   What doesn’t make me drool is the cost of one Deborah Lippmann polish ($18-$20).  I know they’re worth it, but I was waiting for a sale to happen (ANYTHING) and it just wasn’t going happening in my area.  When I first heard about Whimsical being a GiTA dupe, I knew this had to be mine!!

More, more, more under the cut…

Sinful Colors – Daddy’s Girl Goes Argyle

I’ve been meaning to post this color since September when I picked it up. I had the retardedly cutesy notion that I could post it on my Dad’s bday haha (not that he reads the blog, but just because I could). I actually did the mani, but my pics were lost in the Great Computer Meltdown and I finallllyyyy got around to using the color again this past weekend.

I love this color, and would be surprised if Sandy didn’t own it, being our resident purple girl. It’s a fairly sheer purple jelly, so it takes 3 coats to get the deep royal purple you see here, but it’s a decent enough formula that the extra layer isn’t a problem for application or drying time. I couldn’t quite get a picture of it, but the shimmer in it actually is a gold-ish color which really makes it pop.

Now, I’m sure Mel has been patiently reading through this wanting to know about that awesome argyle accent nail… guess she’ll have to hit the jump to find out how I managed it!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure – Commander in Chic

Well, readers, I don’t know if you’ve heard the exciting news. I have a new lucky polish! Haha, actually, the REALLY exciting news is that I got a new job and I’m moving to New York City! It’s exciting times 😀 The polish I was wearing when I had my interview and when I found out I got the job? Sally Hansen CSM – Commander in Chic. I actually can’t decide if I should call this my Lucky Polish or my Power Polish, both are fitting. I know I’m new to the neutral love-fest, but I’ve been picking up a lot of polishes like this shade lately, and CiC is one that just kind of gently whispers “oh my varnish” to me. It’s formula is a breeze, you could probably get away with only one coat, but I like to do two because it gives it that cushy, deep look. The brush makes it a super quick mani too. I love the lavender/peach tones in the brown, it makes it soft yet a little edgy and it goes with so much! Plus, come on, the name is fabulous.

2 coats Orly Nail Armor

2 coats Sally Hansen CSM – Commander in Chic**

1 coat Seche Vite

Long story short, I’m REALLY glad I shelled out the $8 for this polish. I see myself wearing it a lot in NYC!!

**My accent nail is one coat of Mattese Elite – Uninhibited, mainly to convince Mel that she NEEDS it. Not sure I would use it with CiC again, but look at how awesome one layer coats. And it iisss still on sale 😉

 

Butter London – Blagger

Oh heeyyyyyy there blog. Been a while, I know haha. But I woke up a full hour and a half before my alarm today, so you finally get a visit from me and my nails! (Imagine that said in a really jovial tone of voice. Jovial also may be my word of the day…) Since I never got to post this during the Tigers’s run for the world series (we’re not going into details here people haha) and since today marks 2 whole weeks that have felt like about 6 months at my job in VA, I give you my Detroit mani as some sort of celebration!

Let me start out by saying this mani lasted me a whopping 5 days. Five people. Not sure if that’s more amazing in terms of the polish or my self restraint, but this picture was taken on day 3 and that definitely speaks to the polish haha. I really love this blue. If you’ll remember my love of Mattese Elite – Vig, Butter London – Blagger is like a color cousin. It’s the same rich, deeply pigmented color but a brighter shade.

It’s a really clean, solid, intense blue and I love it. Application was top notch, it is a highly pigmented color though, so clean up takes a little patience, but it’s worth it. For my sweet Detroit D I used my Claire’s white nail art pen and free handed it. I know, I free hand a lot, but to make you feel better, he’s a macro:

see, it’s not perfection up close, but you can’t tell in the distances you’d be from it in real life. Also, those nail art pens that have a legit pen tip like paint pens are fabulous. I’ve tried a couple brands and haven’t had any one in particular stand out; as long as it has that tip, I can do cool stuff with it, I’m a happy camper haha.

Anywho, happy hump day everyone. I’m off to go harass the mcmansions of Mclean, VA into voting. Er, I mean, canvass in a very professional manner for a highly important election. Hey, gotta pay for my nail polish habit somehow 😉

Essie – As Gold As It Gets (the new gold glitter from the Luxeffects 2011 collection!)

Just to get this post up, I had to take off Shine of the Times after a little less than a week.  The sacrifices I make for this blog! haha.  But let’s just admit it: we saw the Cosmoprof 2011 preview for the Essie Luxeffects 2011 collection and were like OMG ESSIE FLAKIE!!! (referring to Shine of the Times) and then you looked at the others, and the second that caught your eye was probably that gold one.  We know it’s probably nothing we haven’t already seen but the idea of Essie glitters is exciting, and who doesn’t love a gold glitter?  I purchased both of these on the same day, they were together – you could say I struck gold 🙂 (yes I just about fainted from excitement the day I got them)

1 coat Seche Retain (base)
2 coats Essie – Decadent Diva (red in the bottle, practically brown on the nail)
2 coats Essie – As Gold As It Gets (gold glitter)
1 coat Essie – Good to Go! (top)

This, while not as special as Shine of the Times is pretty freaking awesome.  It’s a gold fleck glitter.   I hesitate to call it a flakie because I feel like a true flakie should be kinda holo and glow-y (like SotT) but the flecks are of various sizes and shapes, which are similar traits you see in a flakie.

More under the cut!!

Essie – Shine of the Times (the ESSIE FLAKIE glitter!!!)

First of all, YES THIS IS THE REAL ESSIE FLAKIE glitter polish that you (and I) drooled over in those Cosmoprof 2011 previews. (If anyone important is reading this, I want my invite next year please!)  This is Essie’s Shine of the Times, part of the Luxeffects collection coming out later this year 2011 for the holidays.  Shine of the Times is an iridescent flakie glitter nail polish that looks best when layered over dark colors (though I’m sure it works on all kinds of colors, just need to experiment).

It is AMAZING!!  I can’t even begin to describe the feelings that I have surrounding this polish.  It makes me realize I really need to get a life, but wow, this polish is truly  stunning in every sense of the word.  I actually got nervous writing this post because I  was afraid I wouldn’t do this polish justice.  It is just that freaking beautiful.  And looking at my pictures, I still don’t think I did this enough justice.  I did my best though!

I layered 1 coat (JUST 1!!) over Essie’s Sexy Divide:

1 coat Seche Rebuild (basecoat)
2 coats Essie – Sexy Divide (dark purple)
1 coat Essie – Shine of the Times
1 coat Essie – Good to Go! (topcoat)

MUCH more under the cut!

L’Oreal – Raven’s Strength

I am so mad about this polish. It was impossible to truly capture it’s amazingness on my camera haha.  My pictures don’t quite show you and I’m not sure words will express it’s beauty well enough. It’s gorgeous!! I spent a long time trying to decide if it was gunmetal or dark gray with shimmer or black with shimmer and came up with “liquid hematite” as being the closest color description. It has all the power of a black but with stunning dimension. I would wear this just about anywhere, minus the just about! It’s a dress up or dress down kinda polish; seriously, I can picture this mani on me in situations from girls night out to a black tie affair. (I did dress it down with a coat of Jack O’ Varnish – Moonwitch to show Mel the pumpkin polish that is soon to be in her posession 😛 See it below the cut!) And that’s just me raving about the color!! The formula is excellent too; two coats, no issue, and clean up was a breeze. It’s not one of those dark polishes that stain as you clean it up, and the shimmer isn’t like some where you end up with your hands looking like they were ke$ha-fied haha. It’s just a no hassle amazing color!

I have a mini slide show to try and show you a hint of it’s beauty, but since it’s a limited edition color, I suggest you just get it haha. I know Mel picked it up today, a choice I fully supported (yes, I enabled her during her buying black out… but she couldn’t miss out on this color!! She’s our gunmetal girl!!) Owl’s Night has been the out of the gate star of the Project Runway line, but trust me, this color is no less of a show stopper 😀